Hazed (Palm South University)

The crowd goes wild, and I throw in a loud hoot and holler of my own, cupping my hands around my mouth like a megaphone. Just as I lower my hands, I’m picked up from behind and spun around as I squeal.

I land back on my feet in front of a smirking Kip, and I narrow my eyes, poking him in the stomach before I leap up into his arms again and press a kiss to his mouth.

“I thought you couldn’t make it!”

“Surprise,” he says against my smile. Then, with another kiss, he turns me in his arms to face the stage as the bidding starts on Cassie. “Actually, we wrapped up filming today’s scenes, and with the auction being one of the next we’re working on, Natalia wanted to come get a feel for what it’s like.”

My body goes rigid at the mention of her name, and I turn over my shoulder to find Natalia wearing a bright smile just behind Kip. She waves excitedly at me, and then her eyes are on the stage, and she’s jotting down notes in a notebook as she watches the bidding.

I force a smile. “Great idea.”

Natalia grabs Kip’s arm from behind, pulling him back and saying something in his ear over the shouting from the crowd. Whatever it is makes Kip laugh, and then he says something back to her, and she laughs, and then shakes her head at me as if to say, “Gah, this guy, so funny, am I right?”

I tear my focus from them and turn back toward the stage just as Adam shouts an outrageous two-thousand-dollar bid from the crowd. Cassie’s jaw falls open, but no one else is surprised.

That boy is crazy about her.

No one can compete with that bid, so in a snap, Cassie is off the stage and Ellie is bringing out our next sister.

And I’m trying to watch and be happy like I was just moments ago, and not focus on the fact that my doppelgänger is standing right behind my boyfriend.

Touching his shoulder.

Whispering in his ear.

Laughing at his jokes.

Making him laugh, too.

I crack my neck, annoyed with how jealous I am. I have no reason to be, and yet, I can’t seem to shake this gut feeling that tells me Natalia is trouble.

I somehow manage to subdue the feeling as the auction goes on, and when it’s intermission, Kip, Natalia, and I take a break in the Ralph’s parking lot to get some fresh air.

“Wow!” Natalia says when we’re free of most of the crowd. Her eyes are wide as she looks at her notes and then back at the bar. “This really is something. I’m glad we came tonight, because I had no idea how to picture it when I read the script. I mean, guys dropping thousands of dollars for a date with a girl?” She shakes her head. “Insane!”

I smile, looping my arm through Kip’s. “It’s for charity. And besides, most of these guys are using Daddy’s money, if you know what I mean.”

Natalia chuckles. “Yeah, I definitely don’t. I’m here on scholarship and working my ass off just to be here. These kind of kids aren’t exactly the type I hang out with.”

My neck flares with heat, but I force a breath to subdue it. “Some of them are rich, sure, or come from well-off families. But not all of them. I’m like you, I’ve had to work to pay my tuition.”

“For the record,” Kip interjects, holding up one finger. “I outbid that douchebag with my own money just to get you to go on a date with me.”

“And I paid that douchebag to bid on me because I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t win.”

“Your plan backfired,” Kip says, turning until I’m in his arms.

“In the best way,” I agree.

We kiss as Natalia makes a little aww sound, and then Kip pulls back with his cheeks flushed. “Excuse me, ladies, I’m going to catch up with some of my brothers. Be right back.”

He nods toward a group of Alpha Sigmas on the other side of the parking lot, and then he’s off, and Natalia and I are left alone.

“So, did you always want to be in a sorority?” Natalia asks. The way she’s poised with her pen and notebook in hand, I feel like I’m having flashbacks to the asshole reporters who used to write about me when I played poker.

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“I don’t know about always,” I say, leaning my back against the brick building. “But, I didn’t really have any friends in high school, or feel like I belonged anywhere. So when I came to PSU, it was a chance to start over. I knew I wanted to find a family here. And Kappa Kappa Beta was that for me.”

Natalia sighs, shaking her head as she looks around. “It just all feels so foreign to me. Back home in South Dakota, I was always like one of the guys, you know? I hung out with my cousin and his friends, and the few friends of my own I made were all dudes.” She frowns. “I’ve never had any girlfriends.”